Analysis of scattered dust or liquid droplets which may be highly poisonous or highly infectious requires a quick and simple method of sampling which reliably rules out any risk to the sampler. In particular, the sampling process should prevent the dust from being made airborne as the sample is collected.
The samples are used for chemical or biological identification using analytical systems which are not the subject of this description. One example is mass spectrometers which are capable of identifying dangerous chemicals or bacterial spores in dusts in a short time of only a few minutes even in a diluted state using pyrolyzing devices and the measurement of characteristic daughter ions of pyrolyzed substances. Another example of the analysis of infectious dusts is conventional incubation and cultivation methods. These, however, take longer to carry out.
Dust suction systems which deposit the dust in filters are known. However, removing the filters, their further processing and cleaning the dust suction unit are problematic, not least because of the risk to the person handling them. Similar difficulties and risks are associated with the known wiping techniques.